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"Fact Sheet
4. More than 60 Years of Post-war Migration
On this page
Early migration waves
Post-war developments
Today's migration
The impact of immigration
Statistical summary
Since 1945, around 6.5 million people have come to Australia as new settlers. Their contribution to Australian society, culture and prosperity has been an important factor in shaping our nation.
A large-scale program of migration to Australia began at the end of World War II when millions of people in Europe were displaced from their homelands. At the same time, in Australia, there was a desperate shortage of labour and a growing belief that substantial population growth was essential for the country's future.
These and other factors led to the creation of a federal immigration portfolio in 1945.
By 1947, a post-war immigration boom was under way, with a large and growing number of arrivals including those on government-assisted passage.
Agreements were reached with the United Kingdom, some European countries and the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) to encourage migrants, including displaced persons from war-torn Europe, to come to Australia. By 1950, almost 200 000 people had arrived.
A million more migrants arrived in each of the following four decades. Today, nearly one in four of Australia's more than 20 million population were born overseas. New Zealand and the United Kingdom are the largest source countries for migrants, but other regions – notably Asia – have become more significant.
Early migration waves
The date of the first human occupation in Australia remains an open question, but evidence exists that humans have been on the continent for at least 40 000 years. Consequently, the Aboriginal people are regarded as the indigenous people of Australia.
Transported criminals were the basis of the first migration from Europe. Starting in 1788, some 160 000 convicts were shipped to the Australian colonies. From the early 1790s, free immigrants also began coming to Australia.
The rapid growth of the wool industry in the 1820s created enormous demands for labour and sparked an increase in the migration of free people from the United Kingdom. The social upheavals of industrialisation in Britain also resulted in many people emigrating to escape widespread poverty and unemployment.
During the Golden Rush era of 1851 to 1860, early migration peaked at arrivals of around 50 000 people a year. During this period, Chinese immigrants were the largest non-British group.
Over the years, the migration program reflected economic or social conditions in Australia and elsewhere. For example:
during the 1840s a large number of Irish immigrants came to Australia to escape famine in their homeland
from the 1860s to the late nineteenth century, labourers from Melanesia were recruited to work on Queensland plantations
from the 1860s to the 1920s, concerns about population imbalance resulted in deliberate efforts to attract women to Australia
during the second half of the nineteenth century, Afghani, Pakistani and Turkish camel handlers played an important part in opening up the continent's interior, facilitating the construction of telegraph and railway lines, and
Japanese fishers were instrumental in the pearling industry in the late nineteenth century.
The two world wars also influenced Australia's migration program. The resettling of ex-servicemen, refugees and young people were significant chapters in Australian immigration history.
Post-war developmentsThe most ambitious part of Australia's migration program followed the end of World War II. Australia negotiated agreements with other governments and international organisations to help achieve high migration targets.
The agreements included:
a system of free or assisted passages for United Kingdom residents
an assisted passage scheme for the British Empire and United States ex-servicemen, later extended to ex-servicemen or resistance fighters from The Netherlands, Norway, France, Belgium and Denmark
an agreement with the IRO to settle at least 12 000 displaced people a year from camps in Europe
formal migration agreements, often involving the grant of assisted passage, with the United Kingdom, Malta, The Netherlands, Italy, West Germany, Turkey and Yugoslavia, and
informal migration agreements with Austria, Greece, Spain, Belgium and other countries.
These agreements are no longer in force.
Economic and humanitarian events around the world subsequently influenced the size and source countries of the Australian program. At various times in the 1950s and 1960s, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia were important migrant source countries.
There were also significant intakes:
of Hungarian and Czech refugees following unrest in those countries in 1956 and 1968 respectively
from Chile following the overthrow of the Allende Government in 1973
from Indochina after the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, and
from Poland after martial law was declared in December 1981.
Today the migration program is global, using one set of criteria for applicants anywhere in the world, with migrants originating from more than 185 countries"
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